The Ling

Sketch

Absurdities

Mornings for me are completely charged with emotional and inspirational thoughts. Every morning i construct a story in my head and decide that i will write it down. But the speed of thoughts is so fast than that we write, that i always end up losing many good ideas to write upon.

Some of these ideas are purely graphic...i wish i could draw and explain. So the million and one absurdities that my journey provides me with, every day, are lost. I will try and find a better ways to document them all one day...but i fear that most of the better ideas will have evaporated by then...

I want to express my ideas in motion...because lately i have realised that the dynamics of form is accentuated in motion. At the same time, some things can not be conveyed if motion is not used. Like:

Every morning as i come out of the churchgate station, there is the tempo standing outside the BIG BOX(the station) where fisher-women line up to take up the huge baskets filled with sea food on their heads to carry it to the suburbs of the city. The interesting part, apart from the grace of the act is, i feel, the gang of hovering crows, who, while flying, try and pick up fishes for their day's food from the big baskets on the women's head. I have a whole post to dedicate on this exciting event that happens every morning.

It's very embarrassing for me to take pictures of absurd moments in the city. while this becomes a very easy job for an outsider, i have not been able to capture the above in my past four months of journey to churchgate.

There is another one of this woman, with a cow tied to a tree under which she sits, and sells fodder to the passers-by to feed the same cow. The situation, i feel, is terrible, because the fodder is before the cow's eyes, she knows she has to eat it sometime, but it is only at expense of the on goer that she may be allowed to eat...

The city operates in a similar fashion. People find similar ways of managing their existence. Those are validated somehow. And those who choose other means; well i have another story on that!

The 5 years of Education

A boy works very hard for his own notes to gain better grades, ends up getting only 25 over 50 with a ‘good’ remark on the notebook while another student (who is the teacher's son) taking the same subject in the same class gets a 40 over 50 without attending the requisite amount of classes.

A girl out of frustration due to limited time to complete portfolio leaves the project on her group members and fleers away to home. The portfolio is completed by the peers till the next day submission date, till when, she doesn’t even bother to check the final work. The project gets the second best grades, and all members (including those who do not work) get the same score. After graduating, the girl asks for the same portfolio for securing a job over an interview.

A girl by virtue of being intelligent does not attend the essential number of classes as prescribed by the college. She misses the pre-final marking date and escapes with no work. She still manages to secure the best score in the internal markings. Others just borderline or pass, though being consistent with their work and attendance.

A boy copies all the notes for a paper submission from his friend, who honestly writes in the answers himself, and gets better grades than the original. The original paper bears the mark ‘Copied’ by the Professor.

A girl dresses up well on the day of the submission and gets good grades and comments inspite of no content or essence in work. Her work is shown as one of the better samples to others in the group.

A boy gets 10 other people to work on a submission, produces enormous drawings and gets promoted in flying colours. Others, working by themselves, are mocked at for not having enough drawings.

A girl is kept behind for a term only because the number of students promoted that year was too high. The same design with minor alterations produced in the next semester is promoted easily.

(others may add to this list)

Parting away with old memories

I wish i could keep them forever...
but had to give up my 'moh' towards them...

all went in the dustbin!

The Eternal Debate

I said, "I am not interested in doing commercial work."
He said, "Do you think any thing is non commercial in this world? So then what do you want to do?"
I replied, "I want to do ethical work."
"It's just a matter of perspective. You have to first earn enough to be listened. You can't live only with imaginations. You have to be practical"

I said nothing

And pondered over this eternal debate of the two words.

Commercial: kuh-mur-shuhl
–adjective
1. prepared, done, or acting with sole or chief emphasis on salability, profit, or success: a commercial product.
2. able to yield or make a profit
3. suitable or fit for a wide, popular market

Ethical: eth-i-kuhl
–adjective
1. pertaining to or dealing with morals or the principles of morality; pertaining to right and wrong in conduct.
2. being in accordance with the rules or standards for right conduct or practice, esp. the standards of a profession.


And I thought

Can there be a situation where one is paid for one's imaginations?

After all, it is something which can be ethically commercial or commercially ethical!

Symbols in Origami

It's a Language - It's Communciation...

saturday hangover

we were at dushyant's office on saturday and we totally relaxed that day. reaching in the afternoon, we started discussing music and dushyant kept on strumming the guitar explaining the fundaas of how it is played. and then we got into the discussion of each kind of instrument and then into instruments and then into musicians and then into classical and western music...

what i kept pondering was that what is it about indian classical music that i appreciate. while the western classical music seemed very scientific, the indian classical touched the heart. what i also wondered is that what is it in music that becomes the 'liking' factor. if it is subjective, then its not about making music scientific...

dushyant had a story to tell behind every piece he had collected, justifying why it was different. but what perplexed me is whether the story behind creation of the music should be so important that it affect ones liking...

so there began the journey of the inquiry about what is it in the indian classical music that i like...the music, the instrument, the technicality...what...
and i m still wondering...

but i think i just like music in general and i cant justify why i like certain kind of music. sometimes i try to, but i think that is not required. one just likes music...its natural...

we discussed dushyant's thesis, but soon sonal and ranjit arrived and the whole thing was diluted. we had a lot of fun later...our plans of seeing the movie were shattered because dushyant's comp could not detect sonal's hard drive...sonal actually had got a bag full of hard drives...as if she was carrying a computer...imagine the amount of data - i think she had some 4 hard drives with an average capacity of 150 GBs ... and i wondered about my 1 GB memory chip...

so it was a nice day,...we listened songs, passed time...and just relaxed...after a very long time...

Charles Correa Gold Medal

This is so refreshing. Winning after a lot of hard work is so encouraging. And especially winning a prize that one always wanted to. So it’s an achievement.
When we reached college yesterday at 12:30 pm, we were said that the Charles Correa Jury was already over. This brought in a lot of goosebumps because we were under the impression that the thing is going to go on till 4 pm. The jury called it off quite early.

I was also excited to see Dushyant’s thesis work. It was very nice of him to wait till the names of the winners were announced. Unfortunately his presentation was cancelled. But I called him up in the evening to thank him for encouragement and to meet him up for his presentation.
But before that, the announcement story…
We assembled in the hall. We took seat. And it was as quick as nothing. Kamu Iyer came on the stage. He said, I know you all are waiting for the name…and it is a project called “Cinema for the Blind”. Just for a fraction of a second I was lost in that dream which I always dreamt. But not wanting to miss the rest of his explanation, I came back in reality. While I held Dhaval’s hand quite tightly, the third name announced was his….this was the soney pe suhaaga…

I said to Dhaval, "wow…what a birthday gift dhaval" and he was happy too.

Later on , I was called on stage to shake hands with the master himself. I sneakily handed over the camera to Dhaval telling him to take pictures…and he obliged.

As I approached the stage, I could not believe myself shaking hands with Charles Correa. "Ah….!" my mind said. Now, Correa is a tall figure - you have to anyways look up to him. He had a gliding smile; soft, very soft gesture. Then I shook hands with others – Ravi Hazra, Narendra Dengle, Kamu Iyer and this is when, Sen Kapadia handed over the mike to me asking me to tell the story of the conception of the project…

I felt like I have to give a speech after winning an Oscar Award…and I stupidly said the following:

“Since morning I have being thinking of various things to speak, but now I am actually speechless. So please pardon me if I may go wrong."

"Are you excited?", Wandrekar sir (our trustee) asked.
"Yes! I am...very much" I replied
"That is very good."

I continued, "About two years ago, now three, I had gone to Nehru Science Centre where I saw these blind students walking around the exhibits. This was the point which put me into questioning that what are the blind students doing in a place where there is everything to see. So blind got stuck in my head. That is how the inquiry started…”

Sen Kapadia said, “But this is something that you have already mentioned in your dissertation…the real story must be something else…”




I said, “Actually in my last five years of architectural education, I have never made exciting forms, because I always used to question this form, what is form? And when I got this idea, I thought this was the best way to carry forward my questions”

Sen: But it must have been difficult…how did you convince your faculty?

Me: Yes, it was very difficult. I had to fight a lot, telling them that this is possible. i actually have a paper still, in which one of my jury members said, “Scrap this project”. But I knew that this was possible. so it was not easy. I had to argue a lot and my professors sitting here know that…

Sen then asked the jury panel if they had any questions. I don’t remember who, but someone asked : What is blind?

This is one question that I have never been able to articulate… I tried, “who is blind? I myself don’t know who is blind…I am still in the process of finding out who is blind…but blindness exists. There is this one quote in the last page of my dissertation, which reads that ‘we are blind people who can see, but do not see.’ so I think we all are blind, and we are in this cinema…!”
Sen asked me to take back my seat in the audience. And he continued, “I think the blind is a metaphor, and some time ago we were talking about what is the future of the architecture… I think Mr. Adarkar, you don’t need to do anything, your students are already on the right path.”

Adarkar sir requested Mr. Correa to say a few words…and this was something special…
Correa came and said, “I am not going to talk here about any specific thing, but all these projects raised some issue. In all the three projects there is some sensitivity, with respect to the city. The winning project is talking about his site as the old cinema hall, which is itself is a landmark, and how do you work around it. I think what he is talking about is the insensitivity…you see it was the television which came in to picture and then there were these lots of images. I think this non resolution of the blind must have helped him to take the project the way it is now. May be what he means by blindness is the insensitivity, about the people who can see, but do not look…”

Later, Dhaval and I presented our thesis, and I realized that my pendrive was not showing the presentation file. So I quickly took out my cd…(this is where I appreciated my own preparedness). Though the presentation was old and not updated, I somehow managed to complete it. It was a very ok kind of a presentation I gave. We then left…came out…met Correa. Correa invited me to his office sometime. Ravi Hazra invited me to his college. We met people…it was a nice feeling…very nice feeling…

Building Vocabulary

Academy - 1474, from Latin academia, from Gk. Akademeia "grove of Akademos," a legendary Athenian of the Trojan War tales (his name apparently means "of a silent district"), whose estate, six stadia from Athens, was the enclosure where Plato taught his school.

ad hoc - 1659, from L., lit. "for this (specific purpose)."

aesthetic - 1798, from Ger. ästhetisch or Fr. esthétique, both from Gk. aisthetikos "sensitive," from aisthanesthai "to perceive, to feel," from PIE *awis-dh-yo-, from base *au- "to perceive." Popularized in Eng. by translation of Immanuel Kant, and used originally in the classically correct sense "the science which treats of the conditions of sensuous perception."

Façade - a word which derives from the Latin faccia or face

Window - derives from the Anglo-Saxon and in it survives the idea of the wind-eye, an opening in a primitive house that provides ventilation and light.